Thursday, March 01, 2012

In an official report, Paraguay’s Department of Indian Affairs INDI has confirmed that an uncontacted tribe is living on farmland in the northern Chaco region owned by a controversial ranching company.

Signs of the uncontacted Ayoreo Indians have been found on land owned by Brazilian company River Plate. The investigation shows clear signs of the so-called ‘hiding tribe’s’ presence, detailing footprints, holes dug to capture tortoises and broken branches.

INDI warned, ‘The Indians living in the area are forced to flee to other areas to avoid being discovered…to ignore the knowledge possessed by the original owners of the Chaco forest would be a foolish mistake.’

The evidence will have consequences for controversial cattle ranching companies River Plate and BBC S.A. who have already been accused of putting the lives of the Ayoreo at risk.

Satellite images from 2011 revealed their brazen destruction of almost 4,000 hectares of forest inhabited by uncontacted Indians, and led to the companies being charged with illegal deforestation.

In February, Ayoreo leader Porai Picanerai told Paraguay’s Attorney General, 'We ask you to stop deforestation in the Chaco, and to punish those who are killing the forest which we depend on for our survival.'